Neal Schon doesn’t like living in the past. But the Journey guitarist is hoping that San Francisco Fest 2016 on Sunday at AT & T Park — where his band will appear with Santana, Steve Miller, The Doobie Brothers and Tower of Power — will time-warp fans back three decades to Bill Graham’s sprawling Day on the Green concerts. But he has his own PRS signature guitar model, a 2014 solo album “So U” (featuring drummer Deen Castronovo on vocals) and, to replace former Journey frontman Steve Perry, an eerie soundalike whom he discovered singing in cover bands in the Philippines, Arnel Pineda, who grew up impoverished, living on dirt floors. “It’s a real Cinderella story,” he says. “And he’s no longer the new guy — he’s been with us for 10 years now.”

Any fan of Journey’s definitive “Infinity” album will agree — it’s difficult to fly into SFO at night and not punch up its flagship single “Lights” on the iPod.

I am so proud of that song. And it’s sentimental to me, because it’s about San Francisco. And I remember the day that I finished it with Perry – he was doing more of an R&B type thing with it, but I was a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, and his rolling chords. So rather than playing “Lights” straightforward, I chose to put a “Wind Cries Mary” vibe into it. And once I did that, we put a stroll to it, and it took on a whole different personality. And it’s still one of our set’s high points. I ask everybody to get out their lighters, and the whole place lights up. And everybody sings it.

But your guitar solo in that is inimitable, your very own tone and voice.

We did “Infinity” with the infamous Roy Thomas Baker, and we did so many different things on that record that I’d never tried, or even thought about doing. I learned a lot from Roy. Like the multi-tracking, violin-styled guitar, as opposed to using synthesizers, and that was a voice for me. Roy basically took a lot of the things he was doing with Queen and brought them to Journey.

Playing devil’s advocate here, why on Earth can’t Journey and Steve Perry reconcile after all these years?

It’s not like I haven’t tried. I love Steve, I love the legacy of the music we wrote together. We wrote some timeless music. But if you look up Steve’s last interviews, he said, “There’s no way I can ever do that — that was then, this is now.” So that’s what he feels. And he has not allowed me to talk directly to him – I always have to give a letter to his attorney to send to him. So the resistance is not on my end.

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Abitaman wrote:Problem seems to be Steve with anything that has to do with music. His spring release date has come and gone.

We should all try walking in the man's shoes for a while.

The guy has a perfectionism streak as long as a light year and he's recording with a voice that isn't what he wants it to be. He hasn't put together an album in more than 20 years and he spent 3 years on that one when his voice was in better shape. Being away from the game that long can literally make you forget who you are. Getting back to that creative head space isn't like flicking on a light switch. It's like a muscle and you lose it if you don't use it. He knows how much expectation there is among his fans. That's a ton of pressure for someone who wants to protect his legacy and there are no consequences if he doesn't release anything.

I wouldn't want to walk in those shoes. I'm happy to give the man his space and hope he's comfortable enough to release whatever he's working on.

Abitaman wrote:Problem seems to be Steve with anything that has to do with music. His spring release date has come and gone.

We should all try walking in the man's shoes for a while.

The guy has a perfectionism streak as long as a light year and he's recording with a voice that isn't what he wants it to be. He hasn't put together an album in more than 20 years and he spent 3 years on that one when his voice was in better shape. Being away from the game that long can literally make you forget who you are. Getting back to that creative head space isn't like flicking on a light switch. It's like a muscle and you lose it if you don't use it. He knows how much expectation there is among his fans. That's a ton of pressure for someone who wants to protect his legacy and there are no consequences if he doesn't release anything.

I wouldn't want to walk in those shoes. I'm happy to give the man his space and hope he's comfortable enough to release whatever he's working on.

+10

The injury that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance. Steve Perry

Abitaman wrote:Problem seems to be Steve with anything that has to do with music. His spring release date has come and gone.

We should all try walking in the man's shoes for a while.

The guy has a perfectionism streak as long as a light year and he's recording with a voice that isn't what he wants it to be. He hasn't put together an album in more than 20 years and he spent 3 years on that one when his voice was in better shape. Being away from the game that long can literally make you forget who you are. Getting back to that creative head space isn't like flicking on a light switch. It's like a muscle and you lose it if you don't use it. He knows how much expectation there is among his fans. That's a ton of pressure for someone who wants to protect his legacy and there are no consequences if he doesn't release anything.

I wouldn't want to walk in those shoes. I'm happy to give the man his space and hope he's comfortable enough to release whatever he's working on.

Well said. His perfectionism may very well spill beyond his own vocal range. Do we know if he has a band in place? Studio musicians? Selecting the players to represent what he wants his music to sound like adds a whole new level to the recording process. I'm still optimistic that it is a work in progress.

Art Vandelay wrote:Well said. His perfectionism may very well spill beyond his own vocal range. Do we know if he has a band in place? Studio musicians? Selecting the players to represent what he wants his music to sound like adds a whole new level to the recording process. I'm still optimistic that it is a work in progress.

Oh it definitely does. I didn't mean to imply the perfectionism was just about his voice. Perry chases a sound that conveys emotion in his work and it's entirely personal to him. I have no doubt when he hears playback on something like Separate Ways or DSB, he's listening to it from a very different perspective than the rest of us. The ear of the average audience probably doesn't even key into what he hears, but he has a history of chasing what he's after until he gets it.

The question about the band is a good one. He may not even be using the same players on every song. Then there's scheduling conflicts to consider. Perry might be ready to work when someone else isn't, or more likely, vice versa, and that pushes the completion date out of sight.

Truth is we just don't know what's going, but I do believe he is working on something. Whether or not he releases it is a different story.